American Indian Wars

Among the officers stationed at Fort Kearny was a headstrong captain by the name of William J. The Santee’s culture was not only disrupted, the Sioux gradually found themselves dependent on trade goods, which made them easy prey for the white merchants. The Indians under Red Cloud’s leadership harassed travelers on the trail with such determination that in the summer of 1866 white leaders arranged a council at Fort Laramie. This was to become known as the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In the late summer of the same year, as the soldiers marched out from the posts, the Indians burned them to the ground. By destroying the buffalo herds, the whites were destroying the Indian’s main source of food and supplies. Excess acreage was sold to white settlers. Indian often retaliated against the whites for earlier attacks that whites had imposed on them. But as serious talks got underway, a Colonel Henry Carrington marched into Fort Laramie with a large body of troops and plans to establish forts to protect the trail against Indian raids; he made no secret of his intentions.

In 1876 the army planned a campaign against the hostile Indians, then gathered in the southeastern Montana Territory. His followers then fled, some to the camp of Chief Big Foot. Smith to protect the road through Sioux country. Shakopee and Medicine Bottle had escaped to Canada, they were kidnapped back into the U.